- STRIKEFORCE ON CBS IN APRIL, BUT NO FEDOR

by Ken Pishna – MMAWeekly.com
Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker on Thursday confirmed recent speculation that his fight promotion would land in Nashville, Tenn., on April 17. Aside from the date and location, he was rather elusive.

“We’ve been putting most of our efforts into the fight tomorrow night,” Coker told MMAFighting.com of the Strikeforce Challengers card on Friday in San Jose, Calif. “But we’ll have some announcements next week, for sure.”

He refused to discuss any specific fights for any specific dates.

MMAWeekly.com sources indicated that the April 17 fight card, despite recent questioning, would remain on CBS and feature a bout between middleweight champion Jake Shields and challenger Dan Henderson. Some of the other Nashville bouts could be confirmed during Friday night’s Strikeforce Challengers telecast on Showtime.

Reports on Thursday suggested that an expected marquee fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Fabricio Werdum might be moved from the April 17 fight card to an undisclosed Strikeforce event in May.

MMAWeekly.com sources on Thursday confirmed that Fedor will not fight on the April 17 CBS card. It was unclear what the plans are for the Emelianenko vs. Werdum bout, and details of a possible May event were also cloudy.

A light heavyweight title bout between champion Gegard Mousasi and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and a lightweight bout between Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez and Dream champion Shinya Aoki were also expected for the CBS fight card, but it’s unclear if those plans may have changed as well.